The Halo

When I saw Jen Kingwells Halo quilt, I wanted to make it right away. All these curves seamed to be impossible to sew at first. And this was the reason why I wanted to master it.  As a challenge.

I didn´t buy any new fabric but used the fabrics I had. (How I organize my scraps.) So many fabrics found their way into the quilt which are full of memories. To just explain a few: There is my old MonChiChi bed linen. I had to wait for a chance to get it when I was in my early twenties because every time, I asked my grandmother for it my uncle suddenly found it interesting again and wanted to keep it. So I had to be persistent for some years and got it in the end.

Then there are a few fabrics which were a part of my bed snake (the long cosy friend which covers the gap between the kids’ bed and the wall) which my god mother gifted me when I was in elementary school. My snake slept close to me for years and I always took it with me when I moved. Later I gave it to my youngest daughter. She had it for years too. So the fabric is really dear to my and a wee bit worn but still stable, so I love to have it in my Halo now.

And there are many more treasures in it.

The templates where hard to get at that time (2019) so I ordered it at Jens online shop in Australia. Acrylic templates always make the process of drawing on and cutting out easier, so I tend to always get them together with the pattern when I buy a new pattern.

I drew all the shapes on fabric, cut them out (I love my Karen K Buckley scissors for it, makes it so easy to enjoy this part of the work) and composed the blocks in the evenings while I was sitting on my couch. To speed up the process I made an assembly line from one side of by body to the other. This way I can enjoy the repetitive tasks and movements the most.

After composing the blocks I had to pin all the curves. Which I did. It is nice to watch a series on Netflix or so while doing it. I used loads of pins and had big staples of pinned fabric pieces around me during these weeks of cutting and pining.

To carry the pinned pieces to my sewing machine I use small design boards or trays. Then I sew the blogs in chain piecing making sure I put all the pins in one of the many pin cushions so I can pin the next lot later.

And so I goes until all the blocks are done. I like the simple sentence in the instructions which is always like: Make 1048

Which I did.

I am happy to have a design wall. (Go to my Instagram to see how I made it) So I put all the blocks to this every design wall and took a few days to rearrange blocks back and forth until I was happy with the layout. Then sewed all the blocks together. And later that year I asked Katrin to quilt it. I chose her quilting because my friend Andrea made a nice pattern with big dots on it and had Katrin quilt it which was super cute and I fell in love with the airy and playful butterfly wing like designs she had quilted into Andreas quilt.

And she did such a great job quilting my Halo! Thanks a bunch for the coop! I enjoyed it and love the result!